The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States for all governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty.
The present invention relates to improvements in bag valve mask resuscitators and, more particularly, a C2 type air filter cartridge attachment adjunct and method for use with manually-operated Bag Valve Masks (BVM) such as Flynn resuscitation bag masks.
Resuscitation bag masks are commonly used in emergency care and critical care situations. When used in the field bag masks deliver air under positive pressure to a patient not then capable of breathing independently. In a contaminated environment, forcibly delivered unfiltered air exposes the patient to additional hazards, a undesirable product of the caregiver""s efforts. By positively delivering unfiltered air via a bag mask to a patient in need of resuscitation, particularly in a contaminated environment may cause unintended further injury and create a potentially significant additional hazard to the non-breathing patient. This risk would be particularly acute in the case of an NBC (nuclear, biologic, chemical) hazard in the ambient environment.
The Flynn Bag Mask described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,923, is a respirator bag mask now popular with caregivers. The Flynn Bag Valve Mask is a football (egg) shaped, manually operable, shape deformably recoverable, bag formed from a ribbed, flexible thermoplastic including a valved air intake (rebreathing) at one end and a breathing/exhaust valve at the other end to which a mask to cover the nose and face is affixed or operably connected. The art also contains alternative manually operated resuscitation bag mask structures such as the self inflating bellows style bag disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,962 to Sitnik. But none of these disclosed structures disclose or contemplate the use of a filter in conjunction with manually operable, resuscitation bag mask.
Filter cartridges and detachable filters are commonly used in combination with respirator/xe2x80x9cgasxe2x80x9d masks and other personal air supplies. Stern et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,130, contains an exhaustive literature summary of filtered respirators and masks, some less complicated but others incorporating features, for example, of power supplies and fans. Such masks are typically employed in a xe2x80x9chotxe2x80x9d /polluted environment where the elevated concentration of contaminants, smoke, toxic fumes, infectious agents, etc., present a hazard. The objective of filtered respiration equipment is to provide the user with filtered air and to minimize the risks associated with exposure to and contamination by a hazardous ambient atmosphere. An example of a common air filter used in both military and civilian applications for emergency protection in the presence of chemical, biological, and nuclear contamination, is the C2 filter cartridge. The C2 filter cartridge is typically employed for use in combination with respirator xe2x80x9cgasxe2x80x9d masks for short term, individual protection against airborne hazards.
In the field of resuscitation devices for use in emergency air management situations, the military currently employs a Resuscitation Device, Individual, Chemical. (RDIC) to provide filtered air to a patient during resuscitation procedures. However, the RDIC equipment suffers from being bulky, difficult to use and expensive.
What is needed in the art of emergency resuscitation devices is a simple, easily set up, effective, resuscitator unit.
It is an object of this invention to provide a resuscitation bag valve mask assembly with an air filter overcoming the problems with the prior art.
It is another object o this invention to provide a resuscitation bag/air intake filter combination that is at once effective, inexpensive and easily deployed in the field.
It is an object of the invention to provide delivery of clean air under positive pressure during airway management procedures.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an adapter for simple convertibility of conventional resuscitation bag bladders to accept and retain an air filter cartridge for filtering ambient air prior to introduction into a patient""s airway.
A further object of this invention is to provide an assembly for adapting a C2 Filter cartridge to a bag valve mask.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a method for attaching an air filter to a resuscitation bag mask for deployment and use in hazardous environments.
A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and method permitting conversion in a minimum of time of an ordinary, manually-operable, bag valve mask to a bag valve mask providing filtered, ambient air to a patient.
These and other objects of the invention are satisfied by a combination of
a resiliently deformable, shape recoverable resuscitation bag with an air intake port and an air exhaust port, the bag incorporating a first member of the releasable bag interlocking member at the air intake port;
an adapter for removable attachment to the air intake port of a resuscitation bag, the adapter including a second element of a cooperating releasable bag interlocking member where the first and second releasable bag interlocking members cooperate to securely affix the adapter to the air intake port, the adapter also including a first element of a cooperating releasable filter retaining member; and
a filter housing for holding an air filter and including a second cooperating element of the cooperating filter retaining member where the first and second elements cooperate to sealably secure the filter element to the adapter.
Still other objects of the invention are provided by a method for providing filtered air during resuscitation comprising the steps of selecting a shape recoverable, resiliently deformable resuscitation bag with an air intake port, securing a filter cartridge attachment adapter to the air intake port, securing a filter cartridge to the attachment adapter, and communicating air through the filter and air intake port and into the bag.
The invention herein is useful in rescue and lifesaving operations involving a wide range of situations involving, for example, chemical, smoke, and biological contamination. In keeping with the objectives, the invention is both simple and easily deployable in seconds. Based on its capabilities, the invention herein is readily operational in virtually any ambient environment and provides for clean filtered air under positive pressure delivered through a bag mask resuscitator. In part, owing to its ability to provide patient with a substantially containment free air supply, the invention reduces the hazard of additional injury to the patient from use of polluted/contaminated ambient air during emergency airway management procedures. Consequently, the invention is readily adapted for effective patient resuscitation requiring minimal cost and deployment time.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages will appear from the description to follow. In short, the invention herein, is directed particularly to a convertible, manually operable resuscitation bag valve mask providing maximum efficiencies using off-the-shelf basic components already being carried by military and civilian personnel and thereby requiring minimum additional storage space. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration a specific embodiment in which the invention may be practiced. This embodiment will be described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is best defined by the appended claims.